Monday, August 16, 2004

Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander!





Ian Thorpe is King of the 200 mtrs freestyle at Athens Olympics 2004!!

This Race was dubbed by the Press as the "Race of the Century". Peiter Hoogenband (left), winner in the last Olympics came second this time around.

American Teenage Sensation Michael Phelps came third - his claim of 7 Olympic Golds is thus Thorpedoed out.


Sunday, August 15, 2004

Happy Independence day





Wishing all fellow Indians a very happy Independence Day!!

Monday, August 09, 2004

Myth or truth?

Growing up in a Hindu family is quite entertaining. Eh, why?? You ask.

My grandmother never did narrate to me bedtime stories of Rapunzel, Cindrella, Seven dwarfs and their kind. Enid Blyton was not comprehensible to me at the time when I was just learning C-A-T... cat.

But still, the element of fantasy was never missing. It came through our great Hindu mythology. A whole Bible of stories and events; with cross-linked events and inter-linked characters. The plots were interwoven, stories transcended boundaries of Space and Time (and Universes!!), much before Einstien had ever said E= m*c*c . Gods could do the impossible, change shapes, lift mountains and some luck ones even had nymphs (Indra dev).

It all was childhood fantasy. Watching Mahabharat and Ramayan added visual spice to already famous lores. It was fun and it was awesome.

When I was introduced to science of higher classes, something struck me as quite remarkable. Was it an isolated coincidence that I was witnessing or is there something more to it.

Hindu mythology's super-human and divine aspects are being repeated in body and machine in present day. Is it possible that the stories are not just stories? Were these Gods actually in posession of modern scientific theories.

Shiva's trident is mentioned in the mythology as a source and sink of power. When Shiva is furious, the trident is used for burning down the person invoking Shiva's wrath. Stop. Observe the trident's shape. Recall. An object called lightning conductor. Isn't lightning conductor shaped like Shiva's trident? Doesn't it act as absrobent for huge electrical voltages while other objects made form the same material as lightning conductor but of different shape melt from taking in so much energy?

Shiva again. The Shivaling. Great Shiva devotees know that Shivaling is a source of immense power. It containes energy which built the Shrishti (the universe). Observe again. Shivaling's shape is exactly like that of the dome of a Nucler Power reactor!! Its a proven scientific fact that the inverted bell like shape is the most suitable shape for containing the immense energies generated inside a reactor. How does our mythology say the same thing which modern science has proven in only last 100 years?

Iraq War I. Operation Desert storm. Saddam Hussein thinks that he can win the war with his Soviet Scud missiles. US thwarts his ambition. The answer to Scud was the Patriot missile. It intercepted in an incoming Scud missile by tracking its trajectory and then exploding right in the face of the Scud missile. Scud would be hit by the several of the pieces of Patriot in mid-air and Scud would explode in mid-air instead of hitting its targets on ground. Does this remind you of some scene. Ramayan. It was comic to see head-on collisions between arrows from Ram and Ravana. But, when I first saw Scud vs Patriot footage on CNN; I couldn't help but realise the likeness!!

Pushpak. The air-charoit which Ram drove on his journey back from Lanka to Ayodhya. Can we sue Boeing and Airbus for stealing our mythological patent!! Jokes aside, was it possible that Ram had a personal aircraft at his disposal?

Modern day's Adam's bridge between Rameswaram and Sri Lanka. Recent satellite photgraphs have proved the existence of a man-made structure beneath the current sea level. We have thc San Francisco bridge and other splendors of modern engineering. Could Ram have built that bridge, across the sea?

Apart from engg feats, the prowess in the medicinal and surgical skills of our Gods is also amazing. Ganesha got an elephant's head grafted on hi sbody. Did I hear "body part transplant"? Vishnu was able to survive ages and rid world of evil by taking avatars. Did somebody say "cloning"? Abhimanyu heard secrets of breaking the Chakravyuha in Uttara's womb. Don't our present day medics propose listening of soft music and keeping away from noise pollution to expectant mothers?

There are scores of other parallels which can be drawn. Are they imagination of my mind which is just trying to prove a point? What say? How about travelling back in time and saying "Hello" to our scientifically genius Gods!! They sure will have a great laugh at us.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

Googling.... Ushuaia

Ushuaia is the southernmost city of the world. Right at the tip of the Southern America. And using "Ushuaia" as a term means to reach the extremes of the unexplored.

Googling is an awesome way to Ushuaia. The sheer reach and penentration of Google is unrivalled. No use going into "Search Wars" over Google vs Yahoo vs AltaVista vs et al.

Developing Googling as a hobby opens up vast resources of knowledge cutting across the length and breadth (and of course..depth!!!) of the spectrum of human intellect. Just type the topic's name in the search field.. and the information gathered by anybody who is somebody in that field will be available to you.

Instance 1.
I just got fascinated over that 6 colored 3 X 3 X 3 block which has held the imagination of nerds and skeptics alike. Its the Rubik cube. Dunno how many man-years of productive thinking would have gone behind developing the algos for solving the cube and then practising them such that a person has a worl drecord of solving the cube blindfolded(yeah... skeptic??) in 11.2 seconds!!! Not in my life.. never was I going to get that much skill and how would I hit upon the optimized algo. Simple!!! Google is God... answers to all my questions. I not only got the algo, but full flash animation which would be repeatedly play itself so that I could mesmerize (err.... memorize) the steps. And now I can solve the cube..... acheivement, mission accomplished!!!!
http://lar5.com/cube

Instance 2.
Nostalgia haunts me like anything. So, on one rainy morning, I remembered 1989 and a Pakistani singer by the name of Hassan Jahangir. (If you were born near 1980.... and had access to some kind of tape recorder... you are bound to know this). There was a song "Hawa Hawa" which had taken the nation by storm. Somehow, I felt the inkling of having the original piece of music and searched Google for some download site. Instead, I landed up on a web page mentioning the song.
The page was an awesome blog by a dude who lambasted mid-80s Hindi movies in the most hilarious notes. And in hi snostalgia section was the mention of the song. The blog is called "Timex Timepass". And it has been a great strees reliever at numerous occasions.
http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~sundar/tp.htm


Ushuaia....